


sharp teeth

by danielmorgans



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, do not be fooled by the ship tags, how the author wishes it was, only elena matters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-01
Updated: 2014-05-01
Packaged: 2018-01-21 12:28:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1550444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danielmorgans/pseuds/danielmorgans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Here’s the thing about Mystic Falls; you never get out alive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	sharp teeth

**Author's Note:**

> actually an essay about how elena gilbert is better than everyone. this is fragmented and vague as hell but that's the point. weird, i know, but it's very much flashes and read between the lines.

Here's the thing about Mystic Falls; you never get out alive.

 

 

 

At fourteen, Elena Gilbert learns how to take down a man twice her size. _Safety_ , her dad says, _we're just looking out for our little girl_. So she smiles, nods, does as she's told, but there's always been something in her that burns to know things, to understand, to win, so she snoops around, listens in on private meetings, stays up too late, and figures out one night that-

That.

Well, two weeks later she learns how to drive a stake through someone's heart from behind.

Are you keeping up?

 

 

 

At fifteen, Elena notices how boys look at her, and the glint in their eyes is scarier than a gun, than a knife, than a punch to the gut, but she's her mother's daughter, so she smiles, picks one and lets him parade her around on his arm.

Fifteen, but she knows how to play this game, how to smile when he talks about football, how to kiss to keep him interested, how to use words to make it clear that she is queen, and always will be, except, except, except.

He gets too close at a school dance so Elena breaks four of his fingers and he never looks at her again. She paints some nameless boy as her shining hero and hides her victory behind tear stained cheeks. It's not time, not yet.

 

 

 

Sixteen.

Everything ends.

 

 

 

Seventeen, and Death rides into town in the driver seat of a Porsche, on the wings of a crow, and Elena is still trying to stitch herself back together, but some pieces are buried at the bottom of Wickery Bridge, and there's two new boys with that glint in their eyes and blood on their lips, and this game, well, she always wins.

Except.

 

 

 

"Well, this is reality, right here," Stefan whispers, and this is romance novel, this is end of the movie, this is a killer whispering lies, this is everything but reality, so Elena kisses him, and pretends her hand isn't aching for the familiar weight of a stake.

 

 

  


Damon smiles, cold and meaningless and everything her parents ever warned her about, so Elena presses their lips together behind closed doors, bites into his shoulder and lets him fuck her, and wonders if this is her teenage rebellion or something much more dangerous.

 

 

 

She goes on dates with Stefan and lets him hold her hand. She brings him to her house and introduces him to Jeremy and Jenna, says “this is my boyfriend, Stefan.” She smiles and pretends she’s happy, pretends she isn’t playing a game and that this could be love, could be-

He smiles, sharp and so dangerous, and Elena tells herself she can’t love a heart that doesn’t beat, can’t love a monster, except she loves herself, doesn’t she.

 

 

 

Seventeen is a long year, blood on her hands and lies she can’t keep pressed behind her teeth, a heart split in two with a love that will kill her. Except she’s her mother's daughter, she’s the one thing they all forgot to fear and she _loveslovesloves_ them both, tells them so with that smile she learned so well, but she loves herself more, and, well-

She knows how to drive a stake through someone’s heart from behind.

 

 

  
Here’s the thing about Elena Gilbert; she got out alive.


End file.
